A not so merry-go-round

Hasan Guven’s relationship with PayPoint did not start well. He took over New Delta Wines in East London just before Christmas and by mid-January he had nine failed direct debits, some of them owing to Hasan using the wrong code. At the same time he opened a new bank account and tried to get the bank, Lloyds, to act on the direct debit mandate. Except the bank didn’t and Hasan’s old account was closed.

You can imagine the confusion. PayPoint charged him £750 and shut off his terminal.

Hasan’s brother called me, explaining that Hasan’s English wasn’t that good, and I then contacted PayPoint.

I’ll say this for them: they are very thorough. Spokesman Peter Brooker sent me chapter and verse of the to-ings and fro-ings.

Lloyds was not returning PayPoint’s calls and generally being uncooperative.

But after several attempts by both PayPoint and Hasan, the bank eventually admitted failure and PayPoint switched the terminal back on and gave Hasan his 750 quid back. Not only that, but PP also told Hasan that they were giving him a fresh start by removing the entire DD failure history from their records.

“It has always been our stated policy that if failed DDs are shown to be the fault of the bank, we will waive or refund the charges, which is what we’ve done here. We’re happy to put all of this behind us and look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with Hasan,” says Brooker.